H^ 




m 



DELIVERKD SEPT. lOth, 1873, 



BEFORE THE 



onipm^rg |^0, j[§ncttliural ^orietg 



Twentieth Annual Exhibition, 



HENRY C. H^LLO^\^ELL 

(PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.) 



WASHINGTON : 

Rri'jIIT & Eager, Ppinters, 401 7th Street. 
1873. 








\ 






DELIVERED SEPT. lOth, 1873, 



BEFORE THE 



||oittgomcrg :^^0. Mricultunil mdd^ 



Twentieth Annual Exhibition, 



« eciiSfflr.B 



HENRY O. H^LLO^^ELL. 



^PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.) 



WASHINGTON: 

iSjtWHT t Eager, Printers, 401 7th Street. 
1873, 



\ 



■•H2-/ 



ADDRESS. 



Friends and Fellow-Farmers : 

In the absence of fhe distinguisliefl gentleman who was 
to have addressed you, I have been requested, almost at 
the last moment, by our energetic president Elisha John 
Hall, to make some remarks to-day, and so great is my 
interest in agriculture that I am willing to undertake the 
task, notwithstanding I am a farmer by adoption only, 
and not " to the manner born," and am in the presence of 
many of those whose practical knowledge has been proved 
by their success. 

Year after year from this platform orations have been 
delivered, apparently going over the whole subject of 
practical and theoretical agriculture ; still, as we never 
weary of returning spring, of sunrise, of the face of 
friends, of anything in itself useful, beautiful, or valuable, 
so we do not tire of the Annual Fair and Annual Address. 

When upon a lofty eminence, no two observers enjoy 
the same beauties. One sees the distant forest, with 
varying light and shade ; another, the mountains, stretch- 
ing into almost illimitable distance, suggestive of grandeur, 
magnitude, and repose ; others see the sparkling waters, 
whitened with sails interchanging the products of differ- 
ing climes, or with practical minds are interested in the 
evidences of thrift and energy as indicated by the town, 
the smoking factory, and passing train. So no two 
minds, looking over the broad field of agriculture, re- 
ceive the same impressions, or draw the same conclusions 



from the same results. Even those not so fortnuate ess to 
he embraced amongst the immber of agriculturists may, 
for that very reason, present a new idea, or an old one m 
a new light. The *' Scientific American," speaking of a 
prize of $100,000 offered for the improvement of steam 
navigation upon canals, says that inventions have re- 
peatedly been made by those not professional 'mechanics 
or engineers, as the latter have their minds in a beaten 
track or habit of thought from which they cannot break 
away. So those new to the interesting but somewhat 
mysterious ways of farmei-s and farming, or who enter 
into its delights later in life, may aid in turning us, con- 
servative as we are and averse to change, from some old 
paths to new and more profitable ones. All are, or should 
be, interested in country life, foundation as it is, of all 
existence. The country is being agitated to its most re- 
mote hamlets by the struggles of the railroad giants in 
their fierce competition for supremacy. Cities of already 
fabulous magnitude are extending their areas over the 
neighboring fields ; factories are humming upon a thou- 
sand hills and in innumerable valleys — yet, let the farmer 
fail to avail himself of the blessings of Providence, and 
withhold his hand for a single season, and the whistle of 
the engine will be heard no more ; grass will grow in the 
streets of the cities ; the hum of machinery will be 
hushed, and famine will stalk with ghastly form through 
the length and breadth of the land. 

Let us then, fellow-farmers, feel the proud privileges: 
and responsibilities of our mission. To feed the laboring 
millions, to render possible the achievements of the age, 
is surely a high calling — a noble life ! To do it, we must 
sow, and reap, and labor, with added intelligence and 
added industry, and so meet the demands made upon us 
by the increasing populations. There was a time (now 
happily passing away) when the young man of energy 



unci spirit tlioiight his place of action must be in the busy 
haunts of trade. Farming was thought to be slow, de- 
grading, illiterate. It is true ice may wal^e it so, and too 
often do. But to him who enters upon it with a right 
sense of the place it holds as the very ground-work of 
society, who looks with broad and comprehensive mind at 
its possibilities, there will be unfolded a field of labor 
worthy of the highest intellect, and capable of affording 
the greatest enjoyment. The proper cultivation of the 
soil, the knowledge of its constituents, the rotation of 
crops, the application of fertilizers, the habits of animals, 
the use of machinery, the choice of markets, these and 
countless other questions constantly arising, if properly 
considered and solved, will afford scope for the most 
active mind. So important is agriculture deemed that 
in some countries the head of the department is a cabinet 
officer, and in our own land occupies a high official posi- 
tion, and is bringing his bureau closer and closer into 
sympathy with us, gathering statistics of crops, informa- 
tion as to diseases of animals, introducing new grains and 
industries, and aiding us to place American farming in 
the foremost rank among the industries of the world. 
And what other life, taken as a whole, affords so much 
real enjoyment ? We dwell in the midst of the beauty and 
grandeur of nature. Each revolving spring and each re- 
turning day brings us the wonders and beauties of a new 
creation. Sights, sounds, odors gratily every sense. The 
pure sun-light and fresh air bring health and appetite that 
no city can give. The old fable tells us that Antaeus, the 
son of Terra, the earth, in wrestling with Hercules, was re- 
peatedly overthrown, yet rose each time refreshed and 
strengthened, until Hercules, finding that at each con- 
tact of his opponent with the ground his mother had 
imparted new strength to him, grasped him in his arms 



6 

and held him aktft until conquered. As is often the case, 
a moral lies half concealed under this old story. Weary 
and jaded in the contests of life in the cities, thousands 
flock to the country during the summer season, to gain 
fresh strength by contact with our common mother. Life- 
giving, health-preserving, let us then regard her with 
affection and respect ! 

In attending to his daily duties, the farmer is enjoying 
all those benefits, and has them at hand for those near 
and dear to him, that the toiling citizen sees only in the 
dim future, when he has succeeded in his uncertain race 
for riches, and when, alas ! Hercules may have held him 
aloof too long for his mother to strengthen him. This is 
no flight of the imagination. Not a day passes but I ap- 
preciate my privileges as a resident in the country. And 
though they may not recognize it themselves, these plain 
and hard-working men, some of whom are around me 
now, have a love for the pleasures and enjoyments of a 
country life that no city could tempt them to exchange. 
It is healthful, independent, pleasant, safe. It has been 
asserted that 99 out of every 100 persons engaged in 
mercantile life sooner or later meet with reverses in busi- 
ness. Look over a paper of a half-century past, and you 
will recognize scarcely a name amongst those who in their 
day were merchant princes. How different in the country ! 
Generation after generation lives and prospers upon 
nncestral acres. Look through the limits of our own 
county, and we find Bowies, Brookes, Gaithers, Stablers, 
Grifiiths, Bealls, Thomases, Pooles, Whites, and many 
others, living where their fathers lived, useful citizens, 
good and true men. It is a fact that a farmer's life is not 
all rose-color. No human occupation is. It is fashiona- 
ble to talk of the ease of a country life, but it has its 
stern duties. Skill, industry, and economy are requisite 
for success, and of these I am inclined to think the great- 



•Qst is economy. Not that of the old German who gave 
as his receipt for buying added acres, " to sell the potato 
and eat the paring," but the wise economy that prevents 
waste in its manifold forms — the thousand little avenues 
by which our substance is dissipated ; the machinery and 
implements exposed to weather, the half-protected stock, 
the injudicious purchases of untried fertilizers, the loss of 
precious time by unskilled and undirected labor. 

I include, also, in speaking of the healthfulness and 
pleasures of a country life, not only the farmer, but those 
who are so closely connected with him and share in his 
prosperity or reverses — the mechanic, country merchant, 
and all who, though perhaps only owning a garden plot, 
still have their interests identified with his. 

GKANGES. 

A subject is now looming up in the West which will 
require our most careful consideration. I allude to the 
movement of farmers, as evidenced by the formation of 
granges ; the object of which is to give concert of action 
to a class scattered, and therefore hitherto inefficient. 
There were in 1860 half a million more farmers than mer- 
chants and manufacturers together. The number of 
acres in farms is one hundred and eighty-nine millions. 
The cash value of land, stock, and implements is ninety-five 
hundred millions. The amount paid in wages is annually 
three hundred and ten millions, and yet with all this capi- 
tal invested, the farmer, from his isolation, has been the 
prey of extortionate manufacturers* and soulless corpora- 
tions. The object of the leaders of this movement is pro- 
fessedly to save us from imposition and to give us that 
voice in the management of affairs that our number and 

* The speaker is well aware that many maiiufactTirers of agricultural 
implements are honorable men, but unfortunately tbe flimsy and unsub- 
stantial machines sent out by others prove that there are exceptions to 
the rule. 



importance demand. Whether this movement is what we 
need, each must judge for himself. There are legitimate 
fields for co-operation, as in the establishment of a neigh- 
borhood laundry, which shall take from our housekeep- 
ers that bane of their existence — wash day ; or we may 
join in the purchase of implements and fertilizers at first 
hands. But the arraying of one class against others as a 
class, binding by secret bonds and using the organization 
as a political power, as has been done in some States, is to 
me of very questionable propriety. 

PUBLIC DUTIES. 

This leads me to speak a few words with regard to 
a duty that is too often neglected, that relating to public 
afiairs. The eyes of toiling millions in the Old World 
are turning to our shores as a Land of Promise. The 
fulfillment of their hopes depends upon our preserving 
the purity of our institutions, and this, upon the virtue, 
intelligence, and integrity of the people. It is una- 
voidable that there should be political parties, and every 
citizen should understand and take an interest in the 
questions that are constantly arising. I care not what 
a man's political sentiments may be, if he holds them from 
principle and maintains them manfully. If honest men 
do not attend the primary meetings and conventions and 
see that they are represented by those worthy of trust, our 
political machinery falls into the hands of the selfish and 
designing, and the very state of afiairs is brought about 
against which those who have failed in their duty declaim. 
Let every farmer then, and every other good citizen, do 
all that is in his power to advance the views he believes to 
i)e right, and to be represented by honorable and intelli- 
gent men, and, the elections over, all again join shoulder 
to shoulder, irrespective of party, to advance the common 
interests of our common country. 



9 

We ueed, to reach a higher development, a belief in the 
elevation of our calling, and that each should for himself 
study out those points which seem to him to claim consid- 
eration. 

With diffidence, and yet as a fellow-farmer with you, 
I would draw your attention to some of the suggestions 
which, during my residence in the country, have been pre- 
sented to my own mind. 

DIGNITY OF LABOR. 

First. With regard to the dignity of labor. 

We hear occupations spoken of as menial, degrading. 
Fellows-men and fellow-women, no duty can be degrading ! 
Those that perform their duty wherever they may be are 
doing a noble work, however lowly the task. They are 
worthy of the highest respect. As Dr. Johnson says, 
" It must be remembered that life consists not of a series 
" of illustrious actions, or elegant enjoyments. The 
" greater part of our time passes in compliance with ne- 
" cessities, in the performance of daily duties, in the re- 
" moval of small inconveniences, in the procurement of 
" petty pleasures ; and we are well or ill at ease as the 
•* main stream of life glides on smoothly or is ruffled by 
" small obstacles or frequent interruptions. The true state 
" of every nation is the state of common life." 

The man who drives his team and turns his furrow to 
the best of his ability is doing all that man can do — that 
which the moment requires of him. 

The woman who keeps her house and performs the 
thousand little functions that are necessary in life is vastly 
more worthy of respect than those who seem to have no 
conception of the grand possibilities of a useful and 
healthful existence. 

It is true that some, from poor health, ample means, 
or different fields of usefulness, do not labor with their 



10 

own hands ; but the moment they abstain from it through 
a feeling that labor is degrading, there goes out from them 
their true manliness of character, as Sampson lost his 
strength when shorn of his locks by the blandishments of 
Delilah. 

Labor need not be separated from refinement and in- 
telligence. I see around me now men and women whom 
I have met in the performance of the most difficult occu- 
pations demanded by farm life, and who will yet rank 
with any in information, character, and learning. A 
summer or two ago word was flashed over the wires that 
a member of the President's Cabinet, known to some of 
us as an efficient officer, a statesman, and a gentleman, 
had his arm broken by the overturning of a wagon which 
he was loading with hay at his home in Ohio, during his 
summer vacation. What a commentary is this simple 
fact upon American institutions and American labor ! 
Yes ! The true gentleman and true lady depend not 
upon occiqMiion, but upon self. Feeling thus with regard 
to labor, we must respect the feelings of those who labor 
for us. If labor is respectable, the laborer must be re- 
spected. Those farmers and housekeepers who, while de- 
manding respectful demeanor and conscientious work, yet 
show a sympathy for and interest in their domestics, will 
find, apart from a sense of duty done, that their days glide 
more smoothly and more free from those petty annoy- 
ances that ofttimes render the details of country life a 
burden almost too great to be endured. 

HEALTH. 

But we cannot labor without health. Professor Tyndall 
says, in an address to students: " Let me utter one prac- 
^'tical word — take care of your health. There have been 
" men who, by wise attention to this subject, might have 
" risen to any eminence, might have made great discov- 



11 

" eries, written great poems, commanded armies, or ruled 
" States, but who, by unwise neglect of this point, have 
" come to nothing. Imagine Hercules as oarsman in a 
-' rotten boat ; what can he do there but, by the very force 
" of his stroke, expedite the ruin of his craft ? Take care, 
" then, of the timbers of your boat, and avoid all prac- 
" tices likely to introduce either wet or dry rot among 
" them. And this is not to be accomplished by desultory 
" or intermittent efforts of the will, but by the formation 
" of habits. The will has, no doubt, sometimes to put 
" forth its strength in order to strangle or crush the special 
" temptation. But the foraiation of right habits is essen- 
" tial to your permanent security. They diminish your 
*• chance of falling when assailed, and they augment your 
" chance of recovery when overthrown." 

Upon the authority of this eminent scientist I would 
respectfully draw the attention of our young people to 
the growing custom of extending their evening companies 
far into the night. Were it possible for you to rest in the 
intervening time sufficiently to compensate you for the 
loss of sleep, you might perhaps bear the drain upon your 
system caused by late hours and exposure to the dews of 
night. But to labor all day, spend a large portion of the 
evening away from home, and labor again the following 
day, is what no constitution can bear. Sooner or later 
Nature demands the penalty for every violated law. I be- 
lieve recreation to be necessary ; but surely we can afford 
time enough from our daily tasks for enjoyment, and still 
have ourselves and our ofttimes tired horses home by the 
good old-fashioned hour of ten o'clock. Young people 
of Montgomery, pardon my earnestness. I speak to you 
as one who has known by its loss the inestimable blessing 
of physical strength. Without it, life is a drag, duty a 
task, the mind sympathizes with the body, and our capa- 
city for usefulness is abridged. 



12 

EDUCATION. 

Seeoiicl. It is of great importance that farmers should 
realize the benefits of education. It is not only for the 
information gained, but the culture of the mind enables 
us to think better upon all subjects. The man with well- 
drilled and well-informed intellect will run a corn-row 
straighter, drain a piece of land better, and perform all 
his private and public duties with more satisfaction to 
himself than one of equal natural abilities without such 
cultivation. The necessary retirement of country life 
renders it especially important that the mind should have 
food for thought. Like the empty mill, it will otherwise 
waste its own substance. We must see this in its true 
light, or we will be left behind by the advancing age. 
Schools and colleges are multiplying upon every hand, 
the means of acquiring an education are being brought 
within the reach of the most humble, and it will be inex- 
cusable if we allow our children to grow up without at 
least a glimpse of the grand and beautiful, and the possi- 
bilities of a higher life, revealed and developed by the 
cultivation of the mind. Our sons and daughters will 
have more refined tastes and loftier aims. Their daily 
duties will be better done, and, these attended to, they 
can commune by books with the good and learned, aiid 
take more correct views of the intricate problems of life. 

HIGHER CULTURE. 

Third. We must understand the necessity for higher cul- 
ture. Every acre of our land must be made to produce the 
very most of which it is capable. In no other way can we 
silence the talk of "■ hard times " now so universally heard. 
It is no more labor to plant and cultivate a field of corn 
producing twenty barrels or one hundred bushels to the 
acre than one producing two barrels or ten bushels to the 



13 

f\cre, yet, how vastly different the profits ! The average 
yield of corn for the whole country for five years was 
about six barrels or thirty bushels to the acre. Dr. Parker, 
of South Carolina, raised two hundred busels and twelve 
quarts, or over forty barrels, to the acre.* Here is a dif- 
ference of thirty-fotir barrels, or one hundred and seventy 
bushels, per acre — the planting and working costing but 
little more. How vastly would our finances — State, 
national, and personal, improve if we would strive for the 
forty barrels instead of the six barrels, with which too 
many are content. We must under-drain, add lime, and 
other fertilizers with open hand, make all the barn-yard 
manure it is possible to accumulate, and put it where our 
experience has taught us, after intelligent experiment, it 
will do the most good. We must keep stock which, when 
grown to the best size with least expense, will sell for 
double what some of us receive for the scrawny, long- 
legged scare-crows that now disgrace our pastures. We 
must raise sheep, the most profitable animals upon a farm 
if properly attended to, and put no man in oflUce that 
will not aid us in tfceir protection from vagrant curs. In 
this country, with our vast domain, we have not yet 
learned these lessons. In Europe it is far different. Every 
scrap of land in the thickly-settled portions of England^ 
France, and Germany, is sedulously cultivated, even the 
sides of the cuts and embankments of the railroads being 
in grass or vegetables. Generation after generation adds 
its portion to the fertility, utilizing every spot that can 
possibly be made productive. I have seen terraces far up 
the mountain side where stone walls had been built to 
hold the earth brought up in baskets on the backs of 
patient donkeys from the valleys below, each generation 
adding if possible another little strip to the family domain. 

* His land was niidei-diaiued, highly uiaimred, hishly cultivated, and 
closely planted. (Enfield on Indian corn.) 



14 

I may say in passing, too, that their roads are well nigh 
perfect, and on these may sometimes be seen novel teams. 
I once met in the Tyrol a fine noble-looking cow har- 
nessed with a handsome well-grown woman, amicably 
drawing a loaded cart ! We must study out the system 
of rotation that suits our soil and climate. In this lati- 
tude a mixed husbandry seems best. If we turn our 
whole attention to one crop, and it should fail, we are 
hampered to the last degree. With a mixed husbandry, 
if the wheat is short, compensation is generally made in 
hay and corn. If these fail, as tViey do to some, extent 
this year, the wheat is good. In other words, to use a 
homely adage, " we must not put all our eggs into one 
basket." Did time permit, I should like to draw your 
special attention to the subject of under-draining ; not 
merely the land where water stands, but our whole farms, 
as far as capital will allow. By this means the ground 
avoids the extremes of drouth and wet, we would be 
enabled to work the land sooner after rains, and thus 
gain valuable time at the most pressing seasons. Above 
all it gives a depth and fertility to the soil only realized by 
those who have tried it. I have been told that John 
Johnson, the celebrated Scotch farmer on Seneca Lake, 
has amassed a fortune, as he says, principally by under- 
draining. His whole farm is underlaid with systems of 
ditches, not only in the lowlands, but upon the hillsides, 
and now, having raised almost fabulous crops, regardless 
of seasons, he is in his old age renting a large portion of 
it to nurserymen at $100 per acre! Some of us, if we had 
to part with our land, would be glad to sell it for that 
much. If we put in ditches, as some of us try to do, we 
must remember that they need care, afterwards, Spring 
and Fall. The mouths are liable to be choked, and should 
be opened twice a year. We should also walk over the line 
of the ditch to stop up the holes which frequently wash in 



15 

them. By attending to these points they will be servicea- 
ble for generations. There are ditches now doing good 
work upon our farm, put in by my father thirty years ago, 
and bidding fair to last as long as needed. It would be a 
great aid to drive a good chestnut stake at the mouth of 
eaoh ditch when made, as after a year or two it is some- 
times very difficult to find them. 

PUBLIC SPIRIT. 

Fourth. We must feel and cultivate a pride and interest 
in our county, State, and neighborhood. Maryland, from 
her climate, mineral resources, bays, water-courses, and 
soil, occupies the most favored portion of our Union, and 
Montgomery county has advantages equal to any in the 
State. Her pure air, good water, rolling hills, her re- 
sources and her proximity to Washington will, in time, 
gather within her limits a large population. Let us, by 
means of Farmers and Horticultural clubs and exhibitions, 
by good roads and good farming, make it doubly attrac- 
tive. The tendency of the farmer is too mucli to confine 
himself and his interests within the limits of his own 
place. This should not be. While he must closely at- 
tend to his business, he should still manifest an interest in 
his community and neighbors, aiding them in procuring 
better roads, joining them in supporting these Annual 
Fairs, these Farmers' Festivals, where kindness and good 
feeling and mutual sympathy are increased and strength- 
ened by commingling together. 

PERSEVERENCE. 

Fifth. I would say a word or two to those who from 
failure of crops, difficulty with regard to labor, or other 
causes, feel discouraged (for I share at times in their de- 
pression) and think they would better their condition by 



16 

removing to some other place. It sometimes happens 
that by so doing great advantages are gained. But often 
it is found when too late that equal or greater difficulties 
are to be encountered, and that time and money have been 
lost by the change. I once heard an anecdote that bears 
so forcibly upon this point that I will repeat it. In the 
olden times, when faith of a certain kind was more abund- 
ant than now, a family believed that they were hampered 
by the evil doings of a witch. Nothing thrived with 
them. The butter would not come, the cattle broke into 
the corn-fields, the tools were scattered, and all went 
wrong. At length, to get rid of their pest, they deter- 
mined to remove to a distant place, and when, bag and 
baggage loaded up, they were upon the road, a neighbor 
met them and remarked, " Well, you are moving, are 
you ?" Before the man could answer, to his astonishment 
and consternation, the witch popped its head out of the 
churn on the top of the wagon, and replied, '' Yes ; ice 
are moving." I fear many who leave to better their con- 
dition find that the hindering witch goes with them. No ! 
Let us persevere, strive harder, farm better, and cast our 
lots now and henceforth with Old Montgomery. 

HOME. 

Sixth. The last point to which I will allude is one in 
which the ladies are equally interested — the comfort and 
adornment of home. Amidst all the beauties of the 
country lavished upon us by a bountiful Providence, we 
sometimes see the charm destroyed by the careless, dreary 
look of the homestead and its surroundings. On the other 
hand, neat and tidy buildings, a shady lawn, yards and 
windows glowing with flowers, a porch half hid in trailing 
vines — these fill the soul with delight, and bring peace 
and rest to the tired body and weary spirit. It is but a 



17 

little task to plant a tree, to train a vine, to gather to- 
gether the scattered things that give an air of neglect to 
places otherwise naturally lovely. I am aware that the 
farmer is himself to blame, and I appeal to the ladies 
present to give their husbands, brothers, and fathers no 
peace until a beginning at least has been made where it 
has not already been done. The vegetable garden, too, 
must not be neglected, however busy we may be upon the 
farm, for a vast burden is taken from the housekeeper 
when the table is well supplied, and she feels no anxiety 
about feeding the hungry horde which the hurrying men 
collect around her— too often without previous notice. 

The interior of the house should be made as beautiful 
and et)mfortable as a wise economy, with industry aud 
taste, will permit. Pictures, books, and cheerful furni- 
ture, as far as justified by our means, should aid in making 
home the most attractive place to which our boys and girls 
can get. Mothers and sisters and busy wives, by giving 
a portion of your time aud taste and skill to making home 
happy you will enable those dear to you to say with the 
poet Montgomery, as once quoted from this platform by 
my venerable father, whose love for agriculture and his 
race increases with advancing years: 

'■ There is a land, of every land the pride, 

•■ Beloved by Heaven o'er all the world beside ; 

■' Where brighter snns dispense serener light, 

" And milder moons emparadise the night; 

■' A land of beauty, virtue, valor, truth, 

"Time-tutored age and love-exalted youth. 

" There is a spot of earth supremely blest, 

" A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest. 

■' Wiiere shall that land, that spot of earth, be found ? 

" Art thou a man ' — a patriot ? Look around ; 

" Aud thou shalt lind, howe'er thy'footsteps roam, 

■' That land thy country, and that spot thy home !" 



18 

So, farmers and residents of Montgomery, will it be 
with us, if we do our full duty as citizens, as cultivators 
of the soil, and of the mind and heart as well. Our beau- 
tiful county will be the home of a happy and virtuous 
people, proving to the world that the duties of agriculture 
are compatible with intelligence, refinement, and worth. 



rai tMHOQ^^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



002 743 907 fl 



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